The Illuminations
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By Andrew O'Hagan
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1 review
How much do we keep from the people we love? Why is the truth so often buried in secrets? Can we learn from the past or must we forget it?
Standing one evening at the window of her house by the sea, Anne Quirk sees a rabbit disappearing in the snow. Nobody remembers her now, but this elderly woman was in her youth a pioneer of British documentary photography. Her beloved grandson, Luke, now a captain with the Royal Western Fusiliers, is on a tour of duty in Afghanistan, part of a convoy taking equipment to the electricity plant at Kajaki. Only when Luke returns home to Scotland does Anne’s secret story begin to emerge, along with his, and they set out for an old guest house in Blackpool where she once kept a room.
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Our book group had mixed feelings about this book. A few of them loved it and some others found it a difficult book to get into. This was my first introduction to Andrew O'Hagan and it will certainly not be my last. The book is about family and the connections we make within the family and where those connections take us. O'Hagan is a master of storytelling.
